“…here are his BSA connections, here he is advancing Microsoft politically (including with his former colleague/employee Jack Abramoff), and here he is scooping up the money Microsoft paid SCO after it had sued Linux (vendors).”Regarding that latest Gates Sr. piece/placement from The Huffington Post, we’ve already received some feedback in the IRC channel. “He thinks Bill Gates Jr. is a good kid. I think he’s mad,” writes the Mad Hatter.

“More of the same, ‘we’re ordinary people‘ propaganda Microsoft is famous for. Bill Gates was giving parenting advice before he was married,” writes Twitter. “The Gates [family] have spent a life time of ruthless self interest. Nothing much has changed, including their self congratulations.”

“The laugh is that one of the five companies they used as a resource for “most improved companies” is Microsoft,” says a reader to us, who quotes from the topic paragraphs of the relevant section:

For eleven consecutive years, Microsoft has been on Fortune’s list of the top hundred companies to work for. As a long-term employee stated proudly, “If you want to impact the world with software, there is no better place to be.” Microsoft boasts smart people and a rich, challenging work environment. The software king is extraordinarily generous to its employees and to society, offering an exceptional health insurance plan (zero premiums, no deductibles), extraordinary employee perks, and world-class philanthropy (highlighted, of course, through the personal generosity of the Gates family). In 2007, the Harris Interactive poll ranked Microsoft number one in corporate reputation, with additional enviable marks for leadership and financial results.

It’s unusual for a highly successful company to take a critical look at itself, but that’s just what Microsoft did in 2003. Leaders recognized a perception problem: Microsoft had become a company that people loved to hate. Customer data pointed toward arrogance. Microsoft was seen as uncivil. …

“Now, I don’t need to tell you what bunk lies in every single one of these phrases, clauses, and dependent clauses,” says this reader of ours. He continues:

“I find the idea that “it’s unusual for a highly successful company to take a critical look at itself” highly risable: highly successful companies (and sports teams and individual performers) do that every day. I also find it particularly telling that Microsoft’s incivility is positioned as a “perception problem”. Needless to say, the conclusion of the section is nothing short of glowing, delighted that subordinate employees can finish a sentence without fear that some executive will cut their tongue out. But what about being civil in free market competition? What’s the cost of that bad behavior? It’s uncountably large, though Microsoft do get dinged for the odd billion here and there.” █

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4 Comments

Wasn’t your friend twitter who once remarked that it was “sickening” that someone who lived in Seattle had to ride on the same train as some Microsoft employees?

Lots of previously established credibility on the topic from this club, as usual.

Interesting how so many of your blog posts are made up of hearsay and opinionated exaggerations from your chat room. Then if something goes wrong, you can just claim you don’t even know these people. I think you’re on record also saying that you “have no friend called twitter” or something like that. I have to look that up.

Jose_X Reply:April 27th, 2009 at 4:26 pm

Gentoo User, you’ve made the point numerous times that you don’t like this website and a number of its regulars.

It would be more useful if you address the content of the story. It’s a blog posting giving opinions on opinions others gave. Where do you stand on the Gates’ Foundation, Microsoft, etc?

Boycottnovell is big on defining the messengers ahead of time. I like to know about messengers (as a backup), but always prefer to analyze the message and would definitely rather avoid focusing on the messenger.

Are you agreeing with BN’s focus on defining the messenger because you also like to focus on the messenger, or are you, eg, frustrated and decided to fire back same?

Boycottnovell, while painting messengers, spends most of the time covering messages. There is support for just about everything stated above (IMO). [The Mad Hatter comment was meant as an exaggeration for humor effect I think.]

Gentoo User Reply:April 28th, 2009 at 11:58 am

It would be more useful if you address the content of the story

If that had ever been of any use whatsoever for anyone, I would be doing it.

would definitely rather avoid focusing on the messenger.

Perhaps you would like to offer that bit of advise to your friend?

Are you agreeing with BN’s focus on defining the messenger because you also like to focus on the messenger

No, merely pointing out that someone who says it’s “sickening” to ride in the same train as some Microsoft employees is probably not a good source of opinion about anything.

There is support for just about everything stated above

There is? I must admit I didn’t actually read any of it, if it’s anything like most of the other references, they’re probably filled with the same factual inaccuracies and flat out lies as everything else that is written as opinion but later used as fact, because the author knows no one is going to bother looking up 40 previous posts, which in turn reference another 400 with the same problems. It’s called proof by verbosity, a lame rhetorical trick.

The Mad Hatter comment was meant as an exaggeration for humor effect I think

In a couple of days this post is going to be used as fact, so I guess that’s just too bad, isn’t it?

What Else is New

Torvalds and others who are middle-aged (or older) males are often torpedoed using weakly-backed allegations (or insinuations/innuendo) of sexism; that does not seem to matter and won't matter when they treat men the same (or worse)

Linus Torvalds was not fully canceled; nor was Richard Stallman, who's still heading the GNU Project (under conditions specified by those looking to oust him; people who code for Microsoft GitHub and many IBM employees)

General Hugh Shelton, Chairman of the Board of Red Hat, explains (keynote in 2011 Red Hat Summit/JBoss World) that he was introduced to the system as part of a military campaign; it basically helped war, not antiwar

Techrights examines Red Hat’s (IBM’s) hypocritical claims about the Free Software Foundation, founded by Richard Stallman back when IBM was the “big scary monopolist”; IBM employees were prominent among those pushing to oust Stallman from the GNU Project, which he founded, as well

The (in)famous letter against Richard Stallman (RMS), which was signed by many Red Hat employees with Microsoft (GitHub) accounts, doesn’t look particularly good in light of recent revelations/findings; it increasingly looks like IBM simply wants Microsoft-hosted and “permissively” licensed stuff, just like another project it announced yesterday and another that it promoted yesterday

One might not expect this from a so-called 'charity'; the Gates Foundation's critics are often met with unprecedented aggression, threats and retribution, which make one wonder if it's really a charity or a greedy cult of personalities (Bill and Melinda)

The assault on the media by Bill Gates is a subject not often explored by the media (maybe because a lot of it is already bribed by him); but we're beginning to gather new and important evidence that explains how critics are muzzled (even fired) and critical pieces spiked, never to see the light of day anywhere

Microsoft buying GitHub does not demonstrate that Microsoft loves Open Source (GitHub is not Open Source and may never be) but that it loves monopoly and coercion (what GitHub is all about and why it must be rejected)

The European Patent Office (EPO) keeps granting fake patents that cause a lot of real harm (examiners are pressured to play along and participate in this unlawful agenda); nobody is happy except those who profit from needless, frivolous lawsuits

After contributing to the cancellation of Richard Stallman (RMS) based on some falsehoods perpetuated in the media we're seeing the sort of thing one might expect from IBM (more so now that it totally controls Fedora and RHEL)

The coup to remove (or remove power from) Stallman and Torvalds, the GNU and Linux founders respectively, is followed by outsourcing of their work to Microsoft’s newly-acquired monopoly (GitHub) and appointment of Microsoft workers or Microsoft-friendly people, shoehorning them into top roles under the disingenuous guise of "professionalism"